Current electronic locks fail to provide an ability to capture a key when the lock is operated. In a mechanical lock, the key is captured after the key is placed into the lock and rotated away from the “zero” position; after beginning rotation, the key cannot be removed from the lock except when placed in some predetermined positions. Virtually all mechanical locks operate in this manner, and so, users have been conditioned to rotate the key to one of the predetermined positions in order to remove their key. In a mechanical lock context, it is rare for a user to unintentionally leave the key in the lock.
In contactless (and most contact-based) electronic locking applications, the key is not captured by the lock while it is operated, and there is minimal incentive for a user to return to the locked state after completing a task. As a result, it is more common for electronic locks to be unintentionally left open relative to mechanical locks, thereby reducing security in an electronic context. Additionally, because of this weakness of being left unlocked, electronic locks are often designed with an ability to re-lock themselves, which ability requires more expensive designs including more batteries if a lock is wireless.